A symbol of inclusiveness
If Jesus had not been crucified for our salvation, if he had brought about our salvation in some other way, the chief symbol of our Christian faith might still be pieces of wood—not a cross but a table.
Luke's Gospel, which we hear throughout the Sunday of this year is “The Gospel of the Table”. Table-fellowship features again and again as the place where Jesus teaches and ably demonstrates the Kingdom of God. Jesus sits at table, talks about meals and in doing so fulfils his prophecy that he is sent to bring good news to the poor. The Kingdom of God is like, a banquet, he assures us. And - joyfully for us, he eats with sinners, he sits at table with them. In this Sunday's Gospel he uses the seating arrangements at table to make a point about the place of the poor and the helpless in our priorities.
Jesus liked tables (still does) because they remind him of home. If the Kingdom of God is like a banquet, then we can imagine Jesus settling in a human table, gazing around his dining companion and murmuring, “Now this is more like it”. In Jesus’ time, in addition to the invited guests (some of whom were jostling for the places of honour) there was an audience of the uninvited, whom social convention allowed just inside the door to admire the privileged. No wonder the guests were startled when Jesus aid the group of the poor should be sitting at the table. He was, as we sometimes sing, certainly turning the world upside down.
We gather this Sunday to celebrate the banquet of the Kingdom. In an aside during a homily a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that hymns play a big part in our Catholic tradition because they are a way of teaching us the faith, and a way of the faith being able to rest in our hearts as well as our minds. This Sunday in our three churches we are singing hymns of welcome, gathering, and banquet: Fill my house says the Lord—to the fullest—a wonderful reflection of the inclusive nature of the love and salvation of Jesus expressed so vividly in the Gospel of Luke.
This Sunday, at the preparation of gifts, we will sing the hymn Come to the feast. I invite you as you sing it, to ponder each line as coming from the very mouth of God Each stanza is rooted in the prophets, and would certainly find a home on the lips of the Jesus of Luke’s Gospel.
We gather this Sunday, still trying to get right the atmosphere of the Kingdom. We display the Cross to remind us that we are redeemed, but the Eucharist table reminds us that we are to live that redemption; that if we cause divisions, or build barriers we undermine the Kingdom Jesus is building through the Eucharist. Our community is not yet complete. As one of the Bidding Prayers last Sunday said: May we not rest until wounds are healed and a welcome return is offered to all.
The table or altar is a key symbol in this ministry of welcome that we have been given; look at it as you listen to the Gospel. It is both our comfort that we are called to take our place at it, (without jostling to put ourselves first), and it is our reproach should we forget those outside.
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